"A family located in the northern part of London wants to find an remarkable and experienced tutor to support their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might naturally miss the phrase "first-steps" as just figurative language.
However, it could be the crucial part of this unusual position posting, as it attempts to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have already been sent in since the unnamed family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the post has gained attention across the press, with numerous asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their quest, stated that in spite of initial skepticism, he found the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he said they appreciated the unconventional aspect of their request, and how young their son is.
However, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", the expert replied. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to happen again with their new baby.
The strategy: To engage a UK tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the education at the start here is rather absorbed naturally," explained the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to cultivate.
He said the tutor had to be somebody who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of interests.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son develop into a "British gentleman" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he comments.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "UK identity", would the child pick up alleged cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Yes", replied Adam. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the tutoring industry who express similar doubts.
Peter Cui, chief executive of a tutoring service, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
He wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and embodying both cultures. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The idea that a single person can function as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can possibly transplant the attributes of a English gentleman upon a one-year-old child, appears idealistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"In my experience, engaging a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will will not necessarily achieve the goal they hope for.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to experience many of the situations they desire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something Adam hopes can be taught – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the global community regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
